Obama hopes to work with Mexico, 'jealous' of Biden visit

11/27/12 5:03 PM EST

President Obama welcomed Mexico's president-elect, Enrique Peña Nieto, to the White House on Tuesday for the first meeting in what both leaders said they hope will be a productive relationship.

“We meet early with the president of Mexico because it represents the close relationship between the U.S. and Mexico,” Obama said in the Oval Office as he met with Peña Nieto, whose inauguration is on Saturday.

Obama praised the Mexican leader's "ambitious reform agenda" and said he looks forward to working together on border security and trade, among other issues.

Vice President Joe Biden will be leading the U.S. delegation to the inauguration, something Obama stressed is a sign of how critical the relationship with Mexico is. "We only send the vice president to inaugurations when the country is really at the top of the list in importance to us," he said.

Peña Nieto told Obama he hopes to work together to create jobs and to finalize the process for Mexico to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The start of his term just as Obama begins his second term is "a great opportunity for us to have a greater link of brotherhood, of sisterhood, of collaboration," Peña Nieto said.

The Mexican president-elect also backed Obama's efforts at immigration reform. "We fully support your proposal,” he said. “We want to contribute. We really want to participate with you, we want to contribute towards the accomplishment ... so we can participate in the betterment, in the well-being of so many millions of people who live in your country."

Peña Nieto also invited Obama to return to Mexico -- he was last there in June for the G20 Summit in Los Cabos. Obama said he looks for “any excuse to go to Mexico, I’m always game.”